3 out of 5

Label: Woodson Lateral Records

Producer: Building Press?

If I had gotten into Building Press with this album, I’m not sure I would’ve appreciated their more visceral, blistering follow-up Young Money, which maintained their clean, harmonics-infused playing style, but whether through the band’s own oomph or with the assistance of producer Jay Pellici – whose (to my ears) up-close recording style works well for the way the band likes to let notes ring – YM has a certain vicious energy behind each song, compared to Amplitude, which is definitely the same band, but, well, less inspired sounding.

Mostly an instrumental group, description-wise BP don’t differ too much from their instrumental math-rock peers – interesting time signatures, unique instrumental interplay – but there is that harmonics aspect.  It’s not reverb, and it’s not feedback – on both albums the group has a pretty clean sound, but there element that ties this album to the next is in the way they let that sound hang and drift, letting a note or chord ring out in full.  Young Money used this in a more assaulting way, the strings on guitar and bass sounding like they’re going to break from how much sound is being wrung from their strum, but everything about Amplitude leans more toward introspection, with the album title giving a feel of wait, and see how this turns out to the contents, which the album art (apparently a graphic representation of exactly what the title describes) underlines as well, the circular shape, the soothing green color.

None of the tracks here are bad.  The almost cringe-worthy lyrics on Young Money that are nonetheless given vigor by the way their used to further punctuate the sound on that album are here – although just on one song – again more introspective, spoken and not spat, and, uh, actually cringe-worthy because of it.  But again, none of this is bad.  It reminds me of the laid-back, unplugged feel of a band like Up On In, which I would also give a mid-rating for being interesting, and pleasant, but not too defining on any one track.  Up On In actually gets up and shuffles around on some tracks, though, whereas Amplitude feels like it’s played from a couch.  If you tune in, there’s some very interesting compositions, but they wouldn’t be shaped into something with a more notable edge until the group’s follow-up.